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Academic Writing in TWPS

Twps academic writing.

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22 views23 pages

Academic Writing in TWPS

Twps academic writing.

Uploaded by

stammer784
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ACADEMIC WRITING

CHAPTER 2
INTRODUCTION

• Academic writing in English is linear, which means it


has one central point or theme with every part
contributing to the main line of argument, without
digressions or repetitions.
• Its objective is to inform rather than entertain.
• It is in the standard written form of the language.
THE PURPOSE OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Writers should be clear why they are writing. The most common
reasons for writing include:

• to report on a piece of research the writer has conducted


• to answer a question the writer has been given or chosen
• to discuss a subject of common interest and give the writer’s
view
• to synthesize research done by others on a topic
A FEW TYPES OF ACADEMIC WRITING

• Essay
• Research Paper
• Journal
• Book Review
• Synthesis
• Review of Literature
• Conference Paper
A FEW TYPES OF ACADEMIC WRITING

• Dissertation and Thesis


• Abstract- This is a short summary of a long document.
• Explication- This is a work which explains part of a
particular work.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ACADEMIC
WRITING
COMPLEXITY

• Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language.


• Written language has longer words, it is lexically denser and it has a
more varied vocabulary.
• Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical
complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives.
• Simple sentences are easier to write and read, but complex
sentences are also needed in academic writing.
COMPLEXITY

• However, students should make clarity a priority, and avoid writing very
complex sentences until they feel confident in their ability.
• Complex sentences contain conjunctions, relative pronouns or
punctuation, which link the clauses:
• Examples:
• In 2005 the company produced over 135,000 vehicles but between 2005
and 2006 production increased by 20 per cent.
• Over 164,000 vehicles were produced in 2007; by 2009 this had fallen to
123,000.
FORMALITY

• Academic writing is relatively formal. In general, this means that in an essay


you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.
• You should avoid: colloquial words and informal expressions; “stuff”, “a lot of”,
“thing”, “sort of”
• Features of speech such as “well”, “anyway”
• Repetition, redundancy and wordiness; “completely unique”, “adding together”
• Two word verbs: “put off”, “bring up”
• Abbreviated forms: “can't”, “doesn't”, “shouldn’t”
PRECISION

• In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.


• In academic writing you need to be precise when you use
information, for example:
• dates or figures “a lot of people” or “50 million people”
• “the past” or “ from 1964 to 1997”
• “recently” or “during the last 12 years”, or “since 1997”.
OBJECTIVITY

• Written language is in general objective rather than personal.


• It therefore has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader.
• This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that
you want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you.
• For that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns (and adjectives),
rather than verbs (and adverbs).
• Avoid words like “ I ” , “me ”, “myself ”
OBJECTIVITY

• Don't write: “In my opinion, this a very interesting study”


• Write: “This is a very interesting study”
• Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general
• Don't write: “You can easily forget how different life was 50
years ago”
• Write: “It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago”
EXPLICITNESS

• Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in the text.


• Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it
clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related.
• These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling
words.
• Example of signal words: moreover, and then, in addition ,together with
further likewise equally important along with furthermore also in
conjunction with plus besides too over and above one/another
ACCURACY

• Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately.


• Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings.
• For example, Linguistics distinguishes clearly between
"phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.
HEDGING

• In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make


decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of
the claims you are making.
• Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways.
• A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by
linguists as a ‘hedge’
• Hedging is the use of linguistic devices to express hesitation or
uncertainty as well as to demonstrate politeness and indirectness.
• Following are a few words and phrases that can be used to achieve this:
• Introductory verbs – seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think,
believe, doubt, be sure, indicate, suggest
• Certain lexical verbs – believe, assume, suggest
• Modal Adverbs – possibly, perhaps, conceivably
• ‘That’ clauses – It could be the case that…, it might be suggested
that…, there is every hope that…
RESPONSIBILITY

• In academic writing you must be responsible for,


and must be able to provide evidence and
justification for, any claims you make.
• You are also responsible for demonstrating an
understanding of any source texts you use.
ORGANIZATION

• Academic writing is well organized.


• It flows easily from one section to the next in a
logical fashion.
• A good place to start is the genre of your text.
Once you have decided on the genre, the structure
is easily determined.
PLANNING

• Academic writing is well planned.


• It usually takes place after research and
evaluation, according to a specific purpose and
plan.
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED IN ACADEMIC
WRITING
• Do not use contractions (e.g don’t, it’s, he’ll, it’d) always use the full form (do not,
it is, he will, it would/had).
• Do not use colloquial language or the slang the language used in texting ( e.g kid,
a lot/lots of, cool).
• Always write as concisely as you can, with no irrelevant material or ‘waffle’.
• Avoid “phrasal verbs” ( e.g get off, get away, put off )
• Avoid vague words and phrases such as get, nice, good, thing.
• Avoid overuse of brackets; don’t use exclamation marks or dashes; don’t use
“etc”.
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED IN ACADEMIC
WRITING
• Avoid personal language ( I, we, my etc).

• Never use ‘emotive’ language (e.g I feel, I think).

• Do not be subjective, always use ‘objective’ and ‘unbiased’


style.

• Avoid making generalizations, always provide evidence.

• Avoid sexist language: don’t refer to a doctor as ‘he’; instead,


make the subject plural and refer to them as they.
RESOURCES

• https://www.massasoit.edu/Assets/documents/academic-resource-cente
r/writing-center/Signal-Words.pdf
• https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/14011/writing/106/academic_writing/6
• http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/featfram.htm
THANK YOU

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